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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
While the number of New Zealand passports issued this year has decreased, applications from New Zealanders abroad and applications for their first passport have increased significantly.
Overall, there was a 79 percent reduction in the number of passports issued this year, in line with changes at the border and travel abroad in the wake of Covid.
But there has been a sharp increase in the number of applications from abroad, with 48 percent issued to people abroad, up from 22 percent the previous year.
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Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery, said that was because people wanted to be certain that they could return to New Zealand.
“What we have seen is that 48 per cent of the passports issued this year to New Zealanders have been for New Zealanders living abroad. Some of them will have returned home in recent times and others are requesting it in case they need to come. home in the future. “
The Department of Homeland Affairs sent 35% more first-time adult passports to citizens outside of New Zealand than in 2019. The United States led this by doubling the normal number of first-time applications.
Montgomery said that applicants generally traveled with another nationality (for example, an EU passport) but were New Zealand citizens and wanted the security of a New Zealand passport, so they had the option of returning home.
Others were foreign-born New Zealanders who chose to obtain a New Zealand passport for the first time.
Montgomery said that if you are a New Zealander, you can freely return to New Zealand at any time as long as you can prove at the border that you are New Zealand, and a passport is the best way to do that.
“We haven’t seen it on this scale before and that’s because New Zealanders abroad have been able to travel quite freely with their foreign passports, but with the changes in borders with Covid, New Zealanders feel they are more secure with a New Zealand Passport if they wish to travel back to New Zealand, “he said.
This year, officials issued New Zealand passports to people in 150 countries, which is consistent with previous years. But this year he sent passports to places that he received no applications for in 2019, including Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Gibraltar, Guyana, Saint Barthelemy, St Maarten and Tunisia.
123RF
Over the past year, more than 300,000 New Zealanders let their passport expire.
Expired passport
Officials are concerned about the growing number of people with expired New Zealand passports and encourage them to renew them over the Christmas holidays.
Montgomery said that over the past year, more than 300,000 New Zealanders let their passport expire.
That corresponded to an 80 percent drop in the number of passports issued this year.
Montgomery said that in the past these people would have renewed immediately, but did not renew because they did not plan to travel in the immediate future.
He said that when there are changes to the border, people could start traveling again and that they should renew their passports as soon as they can.
“We encourage you to renew your expired passport as soon as possible and don’t wait until the last minute. And we are encouraging New Zealanders to do so online, over the Christmas holidays, to renew their passport, so if they do open the borders are ready to travel and do not run the risk of having an expired passport when it is time to travel, “he said.
Montgomery said that a passport was valid for 10 years, so renewing it and having it in the drawer was better than rushing at the last minute along with many other people and trying to renew it when borders open and people can travel.
“We encourage all New Zealanders to always have a valid passport if there is a possibility that they will travel in the future,” he said.
Montgomery said that applying for a last-minute passport costs considerably more and that at this point they could issue passports within 10 days, but if there was a significant increase in demand, that might not be the case.
In the sea no longer
This year, no New Zealand passports were issued to people who considered themselves “at sea”.
Montgomery said the category applies to people who work on cruise ships or who live on other pleasure craft.
When their passports expired, they would organize their delivery at sea.
He said that this year no New Zealanders received their passports to an address at sea, likely because they had headed ashore with the uncertainty surrounding Covid.
“They are being sent ‘at sea’, obviously there is a bit more information about the address than that, but they have been delivered sitting on a ship somewhere in the world,” he said.
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
